Chenille yarn has become the choice of fabric designers for many items because of its beautiful appearance, softness and durability. Chenille is a pile yarn that has been produced commercially since the 1970's. Chenille yarn consists of short lengths of spun yarn or filament that are held together by two ends of highly twisted, fine strong yarn. The short lengths are called the pile and the highly twisted yarns are called the core. Previously, chenille yarns have been made from different types of fibers and yarns, most commonly cotton, rayon, acrylic and polypropylene. Chenille yarn is manufactured on a machine that is designed to bring the pile yarns and core yarns together. During manufacture, the pile yarns are wrapped around a short stem of polished metal, called a caliper, through which a blade passes to cut the pile yarns into short lengths. The core yarns are pressed onto the short lengths with a rotating metal wheel. The resulting yarn is then fed onto a traditional ring twisted take-up mechanism. In the twisting process, the two ends of the core yarn twist and trap the short ends of pile between the core yarns. The size of the caliper determines the diameter of the resulting yarn. The size and number of the pile yarns and how much of them are fed onto the core determines the count of the yarn.
There has been a recent movement within the textile industry to incorporate recyclable or “green” products which are environmentally friendly. Previous chenille yarns, although incorporating some natural components such as cotton, normally use synthetic, petroleum based, chemical or plastic materials as components for the effect yarn and/or the core yarn. In addition, non-natural binder materials often are incorporated to hold together the pile to the core. The use of these materials is not environmentally friendly in that they do not breakdown in landfills or are prohibitively expensive or impossible of being recycled. Consequently, a need exists for a new recyclable chenille yarn which incorporates natural fibers.